"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

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Wednesday, 12 December 2012

The running coach experience & running for a cause

How's the coaching going, you ask?

Let me put it this way. When I wake up, I never look forward to the run on my schedule. I'm just plain afraid I won't be able to complete my assignment acceptably. I am given distances and times they should be run in. First the snow cover and then the very deep snow cover added an extra level of stress! (I know I should look at this as a privilege to be coached, but if I weren't stressed I wouldn't be enjoying it).

Saturday: Rest day! Yay. Went to Copenhagen with the family and got to do a Bikram Yoga class. Met Malene who tried Bikram Yoga because I had mentioned it on my blog!! How cool.

Sunday: don't feel like running. Biggest snow and ice storm in Denmark's history. I think I still have a corneal abrasion on my left eye (it still hurts) from the wind pelting ice. 27 km in a time I will never reveal because I chose to remain ignorant. Perhaps one should never time a long run in 5 inches of fresh snow (it's only just starting in the picture below). This was again at Fredskov Marathon. I can't fathom that Annette has now run over 150 marathons and she just keeps on running in this snow! Nothing short of amazing.

Photo by Ulrich Fredskov

This is how it looked a little later. The thing that does not get conveyed here is how strong the wind was!! Poor us, I know.

Mon: Again, deep snow, 20 miles. Tears were even shed as I ran the first half with SR. (this back to back long run thing is training for Bandera 100k in January)

Tues: cross training (yay!) spinning + step + core

Wed: Looking for ANY excuse not to do the run on my schedule: 3 x 3km in 4-4:15 min/km. I actually did it in 11:52, 11:49 and 11:47. (treadmill, 0.5%)Cool! Way faster than planned and no hip pain. Maybe I should stick to the treadmill. Time for a short swim!

Tomorrow is 1.5 km intervals.I have to admit I'm not 100% dreading it right now.

Now a question (or a lot of questions):

Did you ever want to run and blog to raise awareness for a good cause? Or is this just the naïve idealist talking? The health and safety of long-distance running during pregnancy certainly came to my mind. But there is no existing organization that focuses on that, is there? And what about the health and safety of female runners in 3rd world countries? Is it so unrealistic that there are female runners in poor or politically unstable countries? Do you readers know of any organisations that work with these causes? Or do have have another suggestion of an organization it would make sense for me to bring attention to?

6 comments:

This doesn't really answer any of your questions, but I was just going to suggest that maybe you could ask your coach to prescribe you some runs that are measured in minutes instead of distance, for while it's snowy. I get really distressed in the winter too when my pace is so much slower because of the snow, so it's mentally easier to say e.g. I'll run for an hour, instead of, I'll run for 7 miles. just an idea...

I know how you feel. I used to dread every single swim workout last year. The only difference was that I was NOT able to hit my intervals at all and you seem to be doing just fine. You are just worried that it will be hard and you might not hit the target. So as you said about your 1.5k intervals, do not dread the workouts that much anymore. You are doing just fine and it will get even better once you get used to his training and you will know what to expect. You want to run sub 3h, right? So jogging won't cut it:) Just listen to your coach, do not run faster than he wants you to run and do not run slower than he wants you to run. Follow the plan on both ends! :)

I have to point to Mmmonyka that Ole did say if I feel like running the intervals or tempos faster, then I SHOULD. I had actually held back a little on that second 4k since I thought I shoulnd't run faster, but then I asked him.

Also, he said when running in the winter outside, the time I run in is "super secondary" :o), so I really have no choice but to not focus on it. But I think I'll run my intervals and shorter tempos inside just so I feel I'm getting the workout out of it that I should.

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

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My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.